Conceptual and terminological features and legal content of environmental quality standards for water bodies in Ukraine and EU

The article investigates the compliance of Ukrainian and European water legislation in the part of legal instruments, which are the standards for determining, for assessing the ecological status and for regulating the quality of surface waters. Such instruments are included in the main environmental and legal institutions of these legislations. The relevance of the study is determined by the transition of Ukrainian water legislation to the phase of practical support for the implementation of European river basin management. The use of these legal instruments should be envisaged in the first Ukrainian river basin management plans. The purpose of the article is to determine the terminological correctness and conceptual conformity for standards of environmental regulating to ensure that Ukrainian river basin management plans are provided with European equivalents (or analogues) of legislative means to combat environmental status degradation and for surface water pollution, in particular, as a result of the impacts of point sources. The study is based on a comparative analysis of the legal requirements of Ukrainian and European water legislation. Numerous inconsistencies have been identified that impede the harmonization of the both legislations. The most significant of these inconsistencies concerns the recently created Ukrainian ecosystem-based framework of environmental and chemical standards (and corresponding classifications) for surface water bodies. These standards have significant terminological inconsistencies and inconsistencies with the water legislation of Ukraine in terms of the concept of environmental water quality standards. It is determined that the European term and concept of environmental quality standards does not correspond to the Ukrainian concept of the environmental water quality standard and does not allow implement of European regulation of pollutant discharges without changes in legislation. In addition, find inconsistencies create significant obstacles to compliance with the requirements of Ukrainian legislation in the field of drinking water and drinking water supply. It is noted that the principle of building a Ukrainian analog of the European system of environmental quality regulations complicates the policy of nationwide unification of activities in the areas of environmental safety and economical use of aquatic ecosystems.